Deal with the Devil

Tall Trees, August 1896

Runs with the Wind had been woken up suddenly the sharp pain of a fist meeting his stomach. He opened his eyes to see the man he had met on the roof of the general store just a few hours earlier.

He tried to fight back but quickly realized he was tied to a tree. A group of men sitting around a campfire begin to laugh at his misfortune. He looks around and sees that he is somewhere in the middle of a forest. There’s a small cabin in a clearing surrounded by a company of tents and wagons. He guessed he was somewhere in Tall Trees.

A moment of panic washes over him followed by a chill down his spine as he hears one of the men speak.

“Take it easy, now. You’re not goin’ anywhere.”

It was Samuel Wyatt.

The group of men laugh again as Samuel gets up from his seat by the fire and walks toward Runs with the Wind.

Runs with the Wind tries to loosen his restraints before Samuel reaches him, to no avail. Samuel leans down to meet Runs with the Wind eye to eye. The contours of his face are hidden in the shadows created by the fire.

“Comfortable?” He says with a conniving smile.

“Let me go, why are you keeping me here!” Runs with the Wind answers back, the growing anger showing in his voice.

Samuel takes a few steps back from him so that the rest of the men can hear him as well.

“There I was mindin’ my own business tonight, meetin’ with a couple of folks at the saloon to talk business. While this is happening, you’re stationed across the street aimin’ a rifle in my direction. Now I don’t know what I’ve done to warrant such behavior from you, but I don’t take kindly to folks wishin’ to do me harm.

Samuel moves closer to Runs with the Wind and meets him eye to eye once again.

“I want you to tell me, son. What were you doin’ on that roof?”

Runs with the Wind didn’t answer him. He figured he didn’t have to; Samuel knew he had been there to kill him.

Samuel lowers his voice so the other men can’t hear him.

“He was your brother, right? It’s a real shame what happened to him, but revenge is a fool’s errand. He got what was comin’ to him, stealing from the likes of us.”

“Liar!” Runs with the Wind yells, his growing anger reaching its peak.

He tries to lunge himself at Samuel but is quickly reminded of his bond to the tree. Samuel connects the back of his hand to Runs with the Wind’s face, a jewel from one of Samuel’s rings cutting across his eye. Runs with the Wind winces in pain as Samuel levels with him again.

“Don’t you call me a liar, boy!”

“If you brought me here to kill me, why not do it now and get it over with?”

He figured that was the reason Samuel had brought him here, and he didn’t want to prolong the inevitable.  

“Kill you?” Samuel says inquisitively. “If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of bringing you out here. I don’t want to kill you; I want to use you.”

The wheels in Runs with the Wind’s head were spinning. Use him? For what? If Samuel had always planned on taking Runs with the Wind hostage, does this mean he was set up?

“Use me? How?” Runs with the Wind asks eagerly. Whatever Samuel had in mind he did not want to be a part of it.

“There’s a small group of folks like you camped out near Citadel Rock in New Hannover. They say that land belongs to their people and that it’s rightfully theirs. The problem is, a few weeks ago my brother Thomas discovered that there might be oil underneath that very same land. Land that Mr. Leviticus Cornwall would be very interested in purchasing to further our business dealings. Now Thomas has been a very reasonable man and has tried his best to negotiate a deal with them to vacate this land, even offerin’ them a very generous sum of money. But they’re very insistent on staying.”

Runs with the Wind doesn’t like where this conversation is headed.

“Now, if we had you on our side of the deal to convince them to leave, these people might be a little more willing to work with us.”

Runs with the Wind couldn’t believe what he was hearing. They wanted to use him as a pawn to aid their scheme of moving people off land that is rightfully theirs. Just like George Wyatt, the family patriarch, and Leviticus Cornwall moved his tribe off land that belonged to them to make way for Cornwall Kerosene and Tar many years ago.

He shuttered at the thought of working for them to accomplish the very same thing that was done to his own people. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t.

“So, you want to use me to make yourselves seem like fine, honorable men? What makes you think I would agree to this? Removing innocent people from their land like it’s yours to take, it’s dishonorable and unjust.”

Samuel began to laugh.

“Who are you to tell me what is dishonorable and unjust? Just a little while ago you were aimin’ a rifle at my head! Mr. Cornwall wants this land and I intend to give it to him by any means necessary.”

“All this, just to make a profit?”

Runs with the Wind knew the Wyatts were fueled by greed, but he had underestimated just how greedy they were.   

“What’s next, tearing down homes to build factories?”

“Look around you son, the world is changing! The old, simplistic ways of life are no more!”

 Samuel spoke slow and enunciated, like a preacher giving a sermon to a crowd.

“The world is progressing forward; soon these open lands will become ranches and cities. There’s a whole world of untapped potential out there. There’s land to be sold and business to be made, and I intend to be the one to capitalize on that. Your people have had control of these lands for far too long and have done nothin’ useful with them. It’s time for more civilized folk to take control; to give these lands purpose.”

Samuel levels with Runs with the Wind once again

“Let me make it very clear. I will strike down anyone who stands in the way of progress, Indians, outlaws, gangs, the lot of you. If you want to live to see another day, you don’t have a choice! You can either assist with this deal, or you can stay tied up to that tree. There’s plenty of predators that roam this forest, they’ll have your body picked clean by morning.”

Runs with the Wind wasn’t afraid of death. But dying for nothing, that is what he feared most. If he died now, he would never be able to seek revenge for losing his brother. Everything leading up to this moment would have been a waste.

He knew Samuel was wrong. These lands were sacred and should be left untouched. But the way he saw it, he only had one choice. He had to make a deal with the Devil.

“Alright.” He says finally, the air of defeat sounding in his voice. “I’ll help you.”

“I thought you might.” Samuel replies. “Now get some rest, we’ve got a long ride ahead of us.”